Thanks Martin. It is helpful to think of a calc measure in that way.

The following formula seems to work the same with or without currentmember in there...and is doing what I want, but requires both dimension on either axis of the query.

IIF([Placement].[Placement Brand].MEMBERVALUE = [Metric].[Brand].MEMBERVALUE,SUM([Measures].[Value]), 0)

So I guess the second part of the problem is the harder part...getting it to work without requiring either of those dimensions on either axis. I'll play around with descendents() and report back.

Thanks again.